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My Research

Other recordists have commented about unusual recordings of what sound like zippers. If this is a mimicked sound it would make sense in that one of the most often heard sounds in a campground at night is zippers on tents and sleeping bags. I had never recorded anything resembling this sound.

Early in May of 2013 my wife and I camped for ten days in Eastern Ohio. As it is early in the camping season most of the areas were sparsely populated with other campers. This particular night there was only one other unit within 300 yards of us and it was also a camper with no tents.

On reviewing my nights recording I found this unusual sound resembling a zipper.

Recently I was invited by two fellow researchers to visit their research site here in Central Illinois. In the past they have heard odd vocalizations and wood knocks. Recently they experienced a roar and voices coming from the woods.

My wife and I camped in the area and after meeting up with our friends spent two nights investigating.

Belle, my Karelian Bear Dog, anticipating her next adventure.

First night: 11 Aug 2013

At around 8 p.m the first night we walked about 1/2 mile down a trail and spent about two hours in the area. We did a couple of wood knocks as we slowly walked back towards the vehicles. When we were about 200 yards from our vehicles two of us heard what sounded like children talking loudly. Five minutes later we again heard the same sounds and it appeared they came from where we were parked. A couple minutes later we heard one bark from my Karelian Bear Dog, Belle, who had decided she needed to guard our truck and hurried ahead to confront the noisemakers. Five minutes later we arrived at our vehicles, the area was totally dark and devoid of any humans. This is only the second time in eight years that Belle has returned to the vehicle and barked.

Second night: 12 Aug 2013

Because of the “children voices” that we heard the night before I left a small recorder on the truck hoping to record any visitors while we were gone walking the trail.

We slowly walked the trail. Belle stayed fairly close for about twenty minutes and then was gone. Typically on an investigation Belle will come and go making contact every so often. She normally hunts for raccoons or other varmints and is usually very quiet, however she will bark if she trees a coon. When she didn’t return in an hour and a half I didn’t get too concerned.

While walking we heard a distant wood knock that I responded to with one wood knock and twenty minutes later we heard a much softer but closer wood knock. We did not hear any vocalizations or other unusual sounds the rest of the evening. We stopped along side the trail perhaps 300 yards from the vehicles for about 20 minutes. While there Belle ran up and I had never seen her so excited to see me, she was overjoyed.

We returned to our vehicles and called it a night.

The location of the antenna on my truck and the front tire where the audio recorder was left.

Antenna 2 – The complete sequence. First, the antenna is struck, then Belle arrives at the 22 second mark. You can hear Belle’s collar jingling as she (I assume) runs a large circle around the truck and then at the 36 second mark takes off running at full speed. Without changing the gain on the recording it is impossible to keep all the sounds at the same volume. Unfiltered

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Antenna 3 – By taking out the sound of the antenna being struck I can turn the gain up you can better hear Belle’s collar jingling and her taking off running. Normally I would remove some of the bass rumble but to do so eliminates many of the softer and subtler sounds of Belle’s movements. Unfiltered

# 1 – It has long been understood that when hikers park their vehicles and hike out of the immediate area that sasquatch may approach their vehicles. I don’t presume to know why they do this other than out of curiosity. With the “childlike voices” we heard the first night I assumed that this was what was happening. I assume they wanted us to hear them, they were not soft but louder that humans without yelling. Belle’s protective behavior the first night to race to the vehicle and bark is something I had noted only one other time in the past eight years when out hiking. My goal the second night was to put her under lead after we reached the end of the trail. I had no idea she would double back early on and return to the vehicles. Did she sense that the “visitors’ had also gone to the vehicles? I have no idea.

# 2 – As to what exactly happened the second night I have an opinion but nothing more. I think Belle sensed that the vehicles may have been approached. She had stayed with us for over a half mile before she headed back to the vehicles. As she got closer to the truck did they hear her coming and give the antenna a yank and then take off? It was only 25 seconds between the time of the antenna noise and Belle’s arrival. Were they juveniles just having fun? Did Belle pick up the scent and give chase only to return 8 minutes later to guard “her masters” property? As it got dark did they then come back? Why did Belle have two bouts of extreme barking and fear (in which she jumped many time onto both sides of the truck and kept trying to get in.) Why didn’t she return to me out on the hiking trail? Did they perhaps have the way blocked for an hour?

The long awaited scientific paper on sasquatch DNA was published today, 13 Feb 2013.

I am very excited that the blood sample that I obtained from Chatham, Illinois in September of 2011 was one of only three DNA samples nationwide in which a complete genome sequence was obtained. The blood sampleÂ came from a downspout that had been bitten into and ripped from a house in a subdivision.

Once in awhile something very odd happens when I am recording. Â This past Thursday, the 29th of November, 2012 my wife and I were awakened at 12:30 a.m. I heard my dog whining on the back deck. I first thought she had been attacked by one of the dogs that travels occasionally past our home.

[The now dry cove behind our home]

I immediately jumped up and raced for the door not knowing what the problem was. By the time I got outside my dog, Belle, had moved to the side yard and was barking towards something down by the cove, behind our house. Belle stopped and came back into the house and we all went to bed.

When I got up in the morning I listened to my nightly recordings and immediately found this dog barking. At first I was convinced that it was just a stray and I isolated the clip and put in my files for dog barks. I was going to keep it for future reference of dog sounds.

Later I started thinking about the strangeness of that night.

The barking went on for a full five minutes before Belle went outside. Belle normally spends the night going in and out and checking every couple of hours. I am just wondering if the lower tones on these barks did not awaken her as quickly as the Â normal higher barks. When Belle went out onto the back deck she did not bark, she instead whined, which is odd. This whining is what woke my wife and I.

I am not saying dogmatically that this is not a stray dog barking, but because of the strangeness behind the recording it will require more sound analysis.

Barred Owls (Strix varia) have a very wide-spread distribution throughout the Eastern United States, Eastern Canada and many areas in the West.

I have always held the belief that serious bigfoot researchers should become acquainted with not only the animals in their research areas but also birds and especially owls.Â Barred Owls make many vocalizations. Other than the familiar “who cooks for you” they also do screams, cackles and monkey like sounds. From the following recording you also notice how active and vocal they can be in the daylight hours.

While on expedition I have been surprised how many researchers are not acquainted with the sounds that Barred Owls most commonly use. Screams are one such vocalization that people confuse with other animals.

The typical Barred Owl scream can be heard in the following sound clips:

My grandson is two and half years old. And as such, like most toddlers, is challenged when it comes to language skills. He has pet names for people and things. He differentiates between two sets of grandparents by the names of our dogs. Hence my name is “Papa Belle”, and his other grandfather is “Papa Tess”. His great-grandfather does not have a dog but he does have chickens. Therefore his name is “Papa click click”, my grandson imitating the sound the chickens make.

OnomatopoeiaÂ is a wordÂ that imitates a sound. Such common words in English are “meow” or “roar”. Â This usage is common through many different cultures, although the word they use will not be the same as ours.

In March and April of this year (2012) I left a long-term continuously running recorder out in the woods at a witnesses property in Edgar County, Illinois near the Illinois-Indiana border.Â The recorder was positioned 12 feet off the ground in an open-platform tree blind. Â The witnesses farm is in a remote area, there are scattered farms but very few people. Â The witness had removed all gamecams from his property six months earlier.

A typical deer tree stand somewhat similar to the one in Edgar County, Illinois

On the 2nd of April, 2012, I recorded the most unusual sound. Immediately upon hearing it I thought “camera shutter”. Â Others will think something else. I spoke with the witness, who was adamant that no strangers everÂ trespassÂ and cut through his woods or pastures.Â Â And once again he maintained that there were no gamecams on his property.

The sound was close, at least within 10 feet from the recorder.

I can not tell you what made that sound, but I am left with this thought –

Was this one of the “locals” passing close by the tree stand? Did they use an onomatopoeiacÂ word to describe what they mistook for a gamecam, my recorder sitting in the tree stand.” Â Was the “clicking and motor sound” heard on the sound clip their vocal term for a gamecam?

Every year I return at least twice to the area where the Colorado Howl recordings were obtained the summer of 2009. Â The site is on a remote dead-end road, being 25 miles from the nearest pavement. I have spent many days there all alone enjoying the quietude.

I arrived on Saturday, the 21st of July 2012. Dennis and Shannon Pfohl, Â of The Colorado Bigfoot Research GroupÂ pulled into camp on Monday morning and Marc Swanson arrived on the next Thursday evening and spent the weekend with the group.

This place is a little bit different than I have ever been before. Vocals can be heard anytime during the day or night and as a result we try to lay low in the morning and not move around much before 08:30 a.m.

On Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., I heard coming from the south-east at about 200 yards in the wood-line, a massive single wood knock. It sounded like aÂ major leaguer hitting a home run ball out of the ballpark. This was not a trip that we would hear any loud vocals.

Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard what she described as someone yelling “heh” directly south of us. She thought Â at the time it was only me out early in the morning. It was not.

Wednesday morning around 1:00 a.m. we had a massive thunderstorm and high winds. I was sleeping in the back of my pickup under the truck-topper. As the rain stopped I felt as if the truck was shoved very hard by something at the front . Twenty seconds later the truck was shoved strongly a second time. I couldn’t see or hear anything.

Around 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard a very large single wood knock coming from due south. At 9:35 a.m. I was sitting in a lawn chair by the meadow and heard another large wood knock coming 200 yards due west.

In the evening after dark, maybe 9:30 p.m., Shannon and Dennis,Â using a thermal imager,Â watched a cow elk in the meadow, seemingly upset about something (maybe our presence).

Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Shannon and Dennis both felt and heard their 26 ft. trailer being smacked by something near the corner. There first response was wondering if I had snuck over and was teasing them. Â I was not up and about at the time.

It was a littleÂ unsettling to all of us to think that perhaps something had been in our camp during the daytime.

At 4:30 p.m. we did hear one distant howl as a response to one of our calls.

[Photo by Marc Swanson]

Friday evening we heard our first close-in coyotes vocalizing in a stand of trees about 200 yards SW of the camp. We were all hoping that the Colorado Howler would join the chorus, but it was not to be.

Saturday morning, between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. Marc, who was sleeping in his tent, was awakened by a very large Â rock that was dropped or thrown and landed several feet from his tent.

Saturday afternoon we walked about 75 yards into the woods behind our camp to collect firewood. Marc and I then returned to camp. Twenty minutes later Shannon and Dennis came back to camp. Dennis related that while walking a little further into the woods he was alarmed to see a black “ball of fur” headed straight towards him.

It turned out to be Belle, my Karelian Bear Dog. She normally scouts out the area and spends lots of time in the woods. She is “on her own” most of time and as with other members of her breed are known as being quite fearless. Â The previous week she had a short altercation with a Hereford range bull, it was a stand-off.

As Belle came back towards Dennis she immediately hid behind his legs and peered back down the trail from where she had come. It remains unknown what she had encountered that would affect her in this manner.

We broke camp on Sunday morning and returned to our homes. Although we did not hear and record any loud vocalizations we did feel like we had heard very loud wood knocks and had perhaps had camp visitors on three occasions.

If there is one Achilles heal when dealing with sasquatch research it is behavior. Â Sasquatch, as do all species of animals, tend to display the same set of behaviors within their specific groups.

One behavior that has been reported is the sasquatchÂ affinityÂ for domestic chicken.

Several years ago I was asked by a fellow researcher to accompany him to a rural home where the family had been experiencing loud vocals. They had also found possible stick structures and large footprints. The homeowner had lost several dozen chickens and ducks. Â As it was getting dark when we arrived I found it interesting to see the only two chickens left were perched on the porch railing as close to the door as possible. Â The homeowners eventually sold their home and moved.

In November of 2010 I gave a public presentation in Belleville, Illinois. After the talk I was approached by a woman from rural Red Bud, Illinois who had been losing five or six chickens several times a week. The chicken house showed no signs of forced entry. The only clue was the strange “cry baby” sounds that she would hear coming from the woods behind her home.

Recently I interviewed a homeowner from near Mt. Vernon, Illinois. He had seen an 8 ft upright figure around his outbuildings and was concerned for his livestock. During the conversation I asked about chickens and he said he had given up on raising them as they always disappeared.

I am currently recording long term at a rural residence near Greenville, Illinois. The family has learn wood knocks and unusual howls. And once again she notes that the neighbors chickens are upset at night.

And recently this newspaper article was published in our local newspaper here in Central Illinois concerning ducks.

Crimes/IncidentsMay 29, 2012

Â At approximately 8:41., a deputy was advised by dispatch of a need to return a call to a 53-year-old woman in reference to ducks being taken from her pen. The deputy contacted the woman who saidÂ she wanted to make a report of her ducks being taken. The woman informed the deputy she had four ducks in a pen in the backyard. The woman also reported there were a dozen eggs missing as well.Â the complainant reported the pen was not locked but the door was shut. There was no indication another animal had gotten into the pen. The woman advised there were two male and two femaleÂ ducks. The deputy advised the woman a report would be completed. No arrest were made.

In most of these cases, although a sasquatch was not seen, the witnesses had noted unusual sounds and other unusual things happening around their residences.

But why take chickens or duck? Of course no one knows the answer other than maybe for the fact the chickens are small and Â easy to carry. Â Plus many people today that live out in the suburbs or rural areas raise a few chickens but do not raise the larger animals.

If you go out in the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You’d better go in disguise.

I have a few rules setup for myself when I am in the woods. # 1rule is that if I see or hear something unusual that I take it all in, remain calm and try to remember the details and enjoy the moment.

Yesterday, the 11th of June 2012 I was driving to a location to interview a witness. Since it was close to my main research area I planned on stopping and letting my dog exercise for a couple of hours. I got to the location around 08:15 and slowly walked through the woods.

This photo was taken last fall at the general location. As many areas of Central Illinois it is a mix of wooded streams and farm fields.

I was walking along a small dirt road and as I came to a corner that overlooks a four acre field I stopped to check out the field. There were three turkeys trotting across the far end of the field and I stopped to watch.Â As I did so just fifty feet in front of me along a small brush and tree line an orange solid colored five foot tall animal barely broke through the foliage and then leaped straight backwards into the brush.

The sighting lasted such a brief moment that I was unable to make out any definable shape. All I can say for sure it was about five feet tall and covered with long orangish hair.Â I got the impression that whatever this was, it was curious about what had spooked the turkeys and didn’t realize I was that close to it.

Belle was about 50 feet behind me and hadn’t come around the corner yet. The hair on this animal was about 5 inches long and not manicured looking. More of a scruffy or shaggy look to it. I don’t believe it was a deer.

I could have walked with Belle into the exact spot but I am in this for the long haul and do not want the locals to think I am aggressive. I know of two other daytime sightings at this same area. I have recorded lots of vocals here in the last seven and a half years.

This is the same location where a group of us last spring experienced unusual howls, possible infrasound and dirt throwing.

One commonÂ occurrence from people who believe they are having visits from sasquatch is gifts. This concept is not something new as it has been reported by witnesses for quite some time. We have lived in our present home for three years now. Â I do occasionally record unusual sounds coming from the woods that surround our property. We have had no sightings or found any unusual footprints. I do make note of things that just seem a little odd or strange.

On the 30th of November, 2011 I found this tail from a skunk on our front porch. At the time I assumed our dog had brought it up from the woods although she did not have any skunk smell on her.

[ Skunk’s tail left on our front porch 3oth November, 2011]

Last year when we started having activity around our home my wife’s first comment was “Do not feed, I do not want them coming up around the house.”

On the 7th of May 2012 my wife told me how unusual it was, there were four rocks, the size of a quarter, placed in our wooden platform bird feeder. Every morning after her morning walk she pours a pint of sunflower seeds into the feeder for the birds and squirrels. Then she also remembers several times finding rocks up by the door. Each time she thought it odd.

[One of several rocks that have started appearing in our wooden bird feeder.]

Now, I make no claims as to what is bringing dead animal parts or rocks and placing them on our porch. I have not seen nor heard the culprit, it just is one of those thing that make you shake your head and say “that is odd”.

For sounds that I have recorded coming from near my back yard please see: